MAKING READY 



did whose feet were smaller than dining-tables, 

 and whose knees were unarmed with scythes, like 

 those attached to the wheels of the Greek battle 

 chariots. Yet she came back into the house 

 chortling a comeallyez and serenely unconscious 

 of injury. If Mary Ann has grass to roll her 

 feet upon she may be willing to let the flowers 

 alone, or at least, to maim, behead and uproot 

 only those that are nearest; and in our own in- 

 terest, if not in hers, it behooves us to yield this 

 point. If you have a roof or a laundry in which 

 clothes may be dried, so that the usual Monday 

 rejoicings shall not be manifest to the vicinage, 

 Mary Ann may be persuaded to remain indoors, 

 and horticultural possibilities thereupon widen, 

 cheerfully. An offer to let her receive her cousins 

 in the kitchen, every night, if those importunate 

 relatives will visit by platoons and in turn, in- 

 stead of by divisions and in mass, and a willing- 

 ness not to inquire where the last butter, sugar, 

 tea, coffee, flour and cider went, will sometimes 

 make Mary Ann amenable to petition. So it is 

 best to give that part of the yard to grass which 

 is nearest to the house, and you need not consider 

 Mary Ann altogether in this ; because the views 



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